We all take for granted that when we turn on a faucet water will come out but what if that were not the case? Some city officials state that our water plant is on the verge of becoming inoperable and suggest they write debt nearing One Hundred Million Dollars to make the repairs. With 3 new sitting council members debt issuance is not a given. They were elected on the promise of taking decisions like this to the voters and letting them decide how to spend their tax dollars. There is little doubt that Odessa’s water treatment plant needs work or that the renovations will run in to the millions. The question is how do we pay for it? This is a hot topic currently on City Councils Agenda. Let us take a look at some things. (Long read but stay with it)
In 2014 the complaints were rolling in on a daily basis regarding water main leaks, meter leaks and rusty water. The city’s short term solution was to routinely auto-flush pipes throughout the city. City officials stated they were working with the city council to get 6-10 million per year to replace the aged pipes and asked that the residents be patient. In early 2016 the city entered in to an agreement with Pioneer Natural Resources to purchase the cities waste water. This was a landmark project worth about 117 million dollars over 10 years. City officials commissioned a ($400,000) four hundred thousand dollar study on the aging water treatment plant, paid for it out of the Pioneer revenue and vowed to use the Pioneer project dollars to improve the city’s drinking water.
In 2017, without having fixed the current water issues, the city started taking surveys on whether or not they should put water softening equipment at the water treatment plant which included an $80 million dollar price tag on top of the renovation costs and a sure bet that your water rates would go up. A water softener is nice but not a necessity. Water softeners should be private homeowner investments just as dishwashers are. It would be wrong to mandate that all people drive Cadillac’s and it would be wrong to force this on families that cannot afford the increased pricing that comes with it. By late 2018 city council was in discussions with Carollo Engineers to create designs for water improvements that would cost the city more than fourteen million dollars and take 25 months to design. The build itself was estimated to cost some sixty five million dollars and take up to five years to complete.
In 2019 with improvements still needed at the water plant city council members issued debt on behalf of the taxpayers, though many voters spoke out against it, in the amount of ninety three million dollars. These monies were to be used for a new police department, fire department, dog pound and some road repairs. These are great projects but not pressing matters and then there’s the water plant.
In late 2020 City Council voted to raise water and sewer rates stating that the money generated would help fund what city council called critical water improvements all the while talking about issuing 195 million dollars worth of debt to fix the water and sewer issues and now it is stated that the Pioneer money received from the sell of wastewater is going to pay off existing debt from 2007 instead of repairing our water plant.
For years our elected officials have talked about and agreed that our water plant was in serious need of some repairs and at risk of failing hundreds of thousands of people. During this time they raked in somewhere between $50 and $100 million dollars worth of revenue that was supposed to go towards the much needed repairs at the water plant. Not to mention the millions of dollars that were squandered on pet projects such as the Downtown Marriott (more than $30 million), Marriott parking garage ($9 million), Ector Theatre ( $12 million), to name a few, all the while residents saw tax increases and water rates increase at a time that city officials should have buckled down and taken care of Odessa’s basic needs.
We are now in the first part of 2021 and Odessa, we are in a bind. How do we pay for this? Do we allow our elected officials to issue debt for us resulting in increased TAXES and increased WATER rates with a 30 year payoff? It has been my experience that once rates go up they never come back down. Multiply an estimated tax increase on your property taxes by 10 or 15 years and see what that increase really means for you. I have seen about all the increases I want for a good while, unless it is on my paycheck. We cannot go without water so what other options do we have?
According to my sources, the City of Odessa is set to receive 21.8 Million Dollars from Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Half that money is scheduled to come next month and the other half in a year.
Odessa Development Corporation was developed using sales tax revenue. They focus on Odessa’s economic development and local business retention and expansion. They are supposed to improve the quality of life in Odessa. How many businesses would come to Odessa with no water? What would our quality of life be without water? This is your money. ODC is used to funding fun feel good projects such as the Noel Art Museum but I do not know of a better or more necessary project for them to help fund.
The water plant repairs are expected to take 5 years and the price tag has gone up to around $95 million dollars. If I were in charge of this project I would shovel the 21.8 million dollars from Biden’s American Rescue Plan to the water plant. It is unexpected money that we otherwise would not have had. I would ask Odessa Development Corporation for $20 million dollars, postpone the $10 million dollar dog pound project, look at the current budget and cut another $10 million dollars and ask the 45,000 water accounts to sign a 15 month contract agreeing to pay a $29 per month surcharge. This totals around $20 million dollars. It would suck to have to do this but at least Odessa residents would have water and could see an end to the debt unlike tax increases that last forever. This would amount to more than $80 million dollars. The remainder of the balance could be paid from certificates of obligation funds written years ago but remain unspent. This is not a perfect plan but it’s better than 30 years worth of debt and the tax increases that come as a result of that debt. Shout out to the current city council, “Suck it up, pay for it and move on!” Be our hero’s